We’re coming to the end of the season and once again we look back on it and wonder at how strange it has been. It’s been a difficult year for spray operators, but from a disease point of view, where the sprays have gone on in good time the results are there for all to see.

It’s certainly been a scruffy year. Various types of brome have popped up where they’ve never been seen before. Very good (on the whole) pre-emergence blackgrass control has given way to poor post-emergence follow-ups. Given the seed return from these survivors, this has set us up for some challenging problems for future years.

Oilseed rape is being dessicated as I write; the majority will be completed by the time this goes to press. A couple of hot weekends have turned it very quickly so there won’t be much peace for high ground-clearance sprayer drivers for a week or so. The hot weather has also shown up any areas of all crops that were waterlogged over the winter; reduced rooting has led to premature death in the drier weather.

It won’t be long before the combines are rolling. At the moment, it looks like the rape will be going before the barley, but mother nature has a wonderful habit of putting the kybosh on any predictions this mere mortal might make. But more than anything, all we ask for is that we have some decent weather for harvest – it doesn’t matter how strange or challenging the growing season has been, an easy harvest makes us all much more forgiving.

On to next year. Which will probably be just as strange, challenging and abnormal as every other one. Which then makes it completely normal…..